IT'S never too late to learn, according to a Camberley woman who has just passed a GCSE.

Angela Doyle, 64, has successfully passed her English exams and will start an A-level in the subject on September 10.

It has been a lifelong ambition to achieve academic qualifications and her dream came true when she recently received her results.

Mrs Doyle, of Academy Close, Camberley, was born in Ireland and moved to this country in 1964.

Born to an Irish lighthouse keeper and his wife, Mrs Doyle was the youngest of eight children.

When just five months old she was sent to live, and later work, with her aunt on a farm off the west coast of Ireland.

There she remained for 26 years, but could not attend school as the only school house on the island closed due to a declining population — by 1945 only two children remained, Mrs Doyle being one of them.

In between rigorous daily chores her aunt would teach what she could, but it was limited to basic reading, writing and arithmetic.

But the strict regime on the farm became too much and she eloped to Liverpool with her future husband.

Once her five children had left home, Mrs Doyle set out to get her qualifications and studied GCSE English.

She said: "I wondered what I could do with the rest of my life. I have always had a thirst for knowledge and have wanted an education since I was 14 years old."

Mrs Doyle added: "I have never sat an exam in my life before but I did it to prove to myself that I have a brain!"

She has now enrolled for an A-level in English literature at Farnborough College of Technology but will spend one year studying for the qualification instead of the normal two as she prefers to work "under pressure".

Her daughter Berni Lines explained how pleased she is with her mother's success.

She said: "I am profoundly proud of my mum.

"She is planning to publish her autobiography within two years and is hoping her new-found skills in computing and English will set her on the road to success as a writer."